Joyce was this month appointed transport and infrastructure minister in a cabinet reshuffle and it's taken little time for his Labor counterpart, Anthony Albanese, to highlight the government's recent infrastructure track record.

Speaking in Brisbane on Friday, Mr Albanese said the Coalition had cut a combined $8 billion of infrastructure spending nationwide from their four budget-night announcements since coming to power.

He said it was "outrageous" that of those cuts $1 billion had been underspent from announcements assigned to Queensland projects.

"What that means is a billion dollars that could have already been put into the Cross River Rail project or a billion dollars to make improvements for the Bruce Highway," Mr Albanese said in Brisbane.

"Barnaby Joyce must step up.

"The test for him over coming months is to show that investment is there in the 2018 budget."